Wednesday, 8 February 2017

A SENIOR BANKING OFFICIAL EMPLOYED BY OR DEEPLY CONNECTED WITH THE ATHENS FEDERAL COMMUNITY BANK ORGANIZATION HAS BEEN “HAND PICKED” INTO THE FOREMANSHIP OF THE McMINN COUNTY TENNESSEE GRAND JURY SINCE 2011!

JOYANNA LOVE Banner Senior Staff WriterThe Cleveland Police Department will be getting a thorough review by a police consultant, the city manager and a city councilman.

The Cleveland City Council unanimously approved having the city manager hire Larry Wallace as a police consultant during a voting session Monday. Councilmen Bill Estes and Richard Banks were absent.

“He (Wallace) has helped cities before and I think he will do a good job for us,” said City Manager Janice Casteel.

Wallace served as a consultant for Chattanooga in a police chief search.

This will not be his role for Cleveland. Instead, he will be offering a review of “policies, procedures and practices.”

Casteel, along with Wallace and City Councilman Dale Hughes, will be reviewing all three to see if they agree or need to be changed. The review will also look into whether current policies are being followed.

Hughes volunteered to serve on the committee after Casteel asked for a Council member to volunteer. Hughes said he is glad to work with someone with the professional experience and good reputation Wallace has, and added he feels the committee is taking a step in the right direction.

“The purpose of this volunteer would be to review any policy changes, so that they can assist us in that review before we bring it to the Council … the full Council would approve any changes,” Casteel said.

Casteel did not give a timeline on when the review would be complete. She said she wanted the process to take as long as it needed for a full review.

Casteel said she chose Wallace because of his experience in law enforcement. Wallace served for 40 years in law enforcement, including the Athens Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Highway Patrol. He has served as the sheriff of McMinn County and the deputy director of the Tennessee Department of Safety. He is the assistant to the president for special projects for Tennessee Wesleyan College. Wallace will leave the position at the end of the month to serve as the Cleveland police consultant.

“He comes very well qualified,” Casteel said.

“Absolutely,” Hughes said.

A contract will be presented to the Council at a later date

“He actually would not be an employee, but would be contracted,” Casteel said.

Hughes asked how much the consultant would cost.

“He would be in the $76,000 range as an annual salary, so depending on how many months he serves (would be how much he makes),” Casteel said. “There is no timeline. He won’t know until he gets in there and he starts working with the policies, the procedures and the practices (how long it will take).”

Interim Police Chief Mark Gibson will continue to serve in that role throughout the policy review process. A new chief would not be selected until this process is complete.

“I would like to go through this process first, figure out exactly what do we need to change,” Casteel said.

Hughes said when the time does come to look for a new chief, the candidate needs to be thoroughly researched, so there are no surprises later.

“It is truly embarrassing to have three chiefs in four days,” Hughes said. “There needs to be something to fix it.”

Dennis Maddux served as chief for one day before being demoted back to captain. Casteel served administratively as chief until a requirement for Peace Officer Standards and Training was brought to her attention. Gibson was then appointed interim chief.

This is not the first time a policy review has been announced.

A previous drug policy review requested by the Cleveland City Council was completed. However, the proposed changes to the citywide policy were never approved. Amendments to the Cleveland Police Department drug policy were approved by the Council to allow for consideration of mitigating factors, such as years of service in the department, as to whether an officer who violated the policy was laid off.

Also during the meeting former Police Chief David Bishop’s service weapon was declared surplus to be given to him in recognition of his years of service. Bishop served as police chief for a little less than a year, before leaving due to medical reasons. Gibson was acting police chief until Maddux was appointed chief. Although Gibson was acting chief in the final months of 2014, Bishop’s medical retirement became official Feb. 28. Maddux then officially became the new chief.

Vice Mayor George Poe acted as chairman during the meeting due to the mayor’s absence. Mayor Tom Rowland is recovering from knee surgery.

MORE…

“Larry D. Wallace serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank and the Company. He previously served as the Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for 12 years from 1992 through 2003. Upon his retirement as Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Wallace returned home to Athens, Tennessee, where he served as Vice President of Administration and then as Assistant to the President for Special Projects of Tennessee Wesleyan College until his retirement as of March 31, 2015. He currently serves as an independent consultant to the City of Cleveland, Tennessee. Age 70. Director since 2006. Mr. Wallace s involvement with Tennessee Wesleyan College has allowed him to develop strong ties to the community, providing the Board with valuable insight regarding the local business and consumer environment. In addition, he is also a strong advocate of the Company and the Bank through his extensive civic and community involvement.”

Source: Athens Bancshares Corporation on 04/17/2015

Athens Bancshares Corporation is the holding company for Athens Federal Community Bank. Jeffrey Lane Cunningham preceded Mr. Wallace in the position of McMinn County Grand Jury Foreman, stepping down in March 2014 having been the “JUDGE APPOINTED” Grand Jury Foreman since 2011. Cunningham was then and is today President and CEO of the Athens Federal Community Bank. Athens Bancshares Corporation and Athens Federal Community Bank are headquartered in the same building in Athens, Tennessee.

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

“In February 2014, Cunningham threatened a 20-year Navy veteran, Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.), with arrest when he attempted to bring evidence of local corruption to the grand jury for its review as is permitted by Tennessee law. Fitzpatrick’s subsequent request for a restraining order against Cunningham was denied by Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, who had sentenced Fitzpatrick to jail on December 1, 2010 in Monroe County.”

Sunday, 29 June 2014

A CHRISTIAN CITIZEN, EUGENE WITING’S PREAMBLE

“The Constitution of the United States is dead.

“On June 24 2014 in Judge Kerry Blackwood’s court the Constitutional rights of Commander Walter Fitzpatrick were taken away. His right to present to the Grand jury redress of grievances of massive government corruption was denied.

“Please note that his rights under the Constitution are the same as yours and when Commander Fitzpatrick lost his rights so did you. There will be a federal civil rights trial in the near future over this miscarriage of justice.

“Commander Fitzpatrick was found guilty with hearsay and lies on the part of the prosecutor Mr. Carter [Colonel, U.S. Army Retired] and [banker – attorney] Mr. Jeffry Cunningham. There was and never will be any proof of guilt. Mr. Cunningham denied Commander Fitzpatrick his right ( and yours ) to present to the Grand jury redress of grievances against the judicial side of Government of McMinn County TN. [Cunningham] also broke the law by not recusing himself when he knew what was in the presentment to the grand jury.

“The prosecutor Carter would not even honor Commander Fitzpatrick by calling him Commander. All you Vets beware you may be next if you have the courage of your convictions and keep your oath to our nations military to stand for freedom.

“Note there are more Americans in prison in the United States per capita than any country in the world. Many of which do not deserve to be in prison put there by a rigged grand jury. Some are guilty of “thinking “ about doing something. Now the thought police are on the seen.

“Juries are so important that they can even nulify bad laws. Did you know that? The defense is banned to even bring that up in the court room.

NOW, SHARON RONDEAU’S REPORT

First Amendment Dead in Tennessee pb

Posted By Sharon Rondeau On Saturday, June 28, 2014 @ 4:37 PM In National |

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THE REST OF THE COUNTRY?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 28, 2014) — The same McMinn County, TN grand jury which was prejudiced by its foreman in January issued a presentment in March charging CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) with extortion, harassment, stalking, and aggravated perjury.

On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick wasconvictedon the counts of extortion and aggravated perjury but acquitted of harassment. Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, who was ordered to leave the bench in an unrelated case because of questions about his “impartiality,” dismissed the charge of “stalking” prior to the end of the trial.

On numerous occasions since late 2012, Fitzpatrick had attempted to submit evidence of crimes committed to the McMinn County grand jury in an exercise of his First Amendmentright to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial District, which includes McMinn, Polk, Bradley and Monroe Counties, the grand juries alternate months of service so that the January group skips February and is convened again in March, then in May.

In January, then-grand jury foreman Jeffrey Cunningham had “informed” the grand jury of Fitzpatrick’s “history” after Fitzpatrick attempted to submit evidence of misconduct on the part of public officials to include Cunningham, the criminal court judges, prosecutors, and local law enforcement. Fitzpatrick had asked Cunningham to recuse himself from the matter since he was named in the complaint, in accordance with state law, a point which Fitzpatrick’s attorney, Van Irion, raised during the trial.

One of the grand jurors said she voted to indict Fitzpatrick because she felt “intimidated” by him after what Cunningham had told the group in the grand jury room.

Cunningham refused to remove himself from presenting any of Fitzpatrick’s petitions to the grand jury while he served as foreman, reportedly resigning on March 4 of this year.

In February, Cunningham threatened Fitzpatrick with arrest if he should make another effort to bring a submission to the grand jury.

Blackwood was not impartial in Fitzpatrick’s case, as he had refused Fitzpatrick’s request without a hearing for a subsequent restraining order against Cunningham.

At issue was the hand-selecting of the grand jury foreman by the criminal court judges, a practice dating back decades in Tennessee but which is found nowhere in state code. The Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure mandate that the grand jury foreman, while chosen by the judge, “must possess all the qualifications of a juror.” A person chosen without the same vetting process as those selected in accordance with state law may or may not possess those “qualifications.”

The Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights is the only place in our founding documents which mentions the grand jury. One legal source notes it as a “protection against abuse of government authority.” When the Constitution was under deliberation, a Bill of Rights was insisted upon by the anti-Federalists, who feared that a central government created by the states would overreach its constraints and usurp power from the people.

Since Cunningham admitted that Fitzpatrick’s claims were accurate during testimony, it is unknown how the conviction on “aggravated perjury” materialized. In Tennessee law, “extortion” signifies an attempt to “coerce” someone to do something.

There must be a unanimous finding of guilt for a conviction. A legal analysis of the provisions of the Sixth Amendment, which includes the right to a trial by a jury of one’s peers, states:

By the time the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified, the institution of trial by jury was almost universally revered, so revered that its history had been traced back to Magna Carta. 42 The jury began in the form of a grand or presentment jury with the role of inquest and was started by Frankish conquerors to discover the King’s rights…

The guarantees of jury trial in the Federal and State Constitutions reflect a profound judgment about the way in which law should be enforced and justice administered. A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government. Those who wrote our constitutions knew from history and experience that it was necessary to protect against unfounded criminal charges brought to eliminate enemies and against judges too responsive to the voice of higher authority. The framers of the constitutions strove to create an independent judiciary but insisted upon further protection against arbitrary action. Providing an accused with the right to be tried by a jury of his peers gave him an inestimable safeguard against the corrupt overzealous prosecutor and against the compliant, biased, or eccentric judge. . . . [T]he jury trial provisions . . . reflect a fundamental decision about the exercise of official power–a reluctance to entrust plenary powers over the life and liberty of the citizen to one judge or to a group of judges. Fear of unchecked power . . . found expression in the criminal law in this insistence upon community participation in the determination of guilt or innocence.” 48

With the systemic corruption within the Tennessee courts as reported by The Post & Email over more than four years, it is difficult to know whether or not the jury was “impartial” in Fitzpatrick’s case.

The prosecutor, A. Wayne Carter, said that Fitzpatrick lied in his attempted grand jury submissions, but Cunningham said that Fitzpatrick’s statements were accurate.

Carter retired from the U.S. Army as a “full-bird” colonel and has asked that Fitzpatrick be sentenced as a “career criminal” with enhanced sentencing for attempting to exercise his constitutional rights to petition the grand jury. Carter excoriated Fitzpatrick for wearing his Navy uniform by asking, “How dare he wear his uniform here? How dare he?”

Title 10 U.S.C., Section 772 (c) permits the wearing of a military uniform by retirees. Fitzpatrick served in the Navy for 24 years and was honorably discharged.

In his submission, Fitzpatrick had attempted to inform the grand jury that its then-foreman, Jeffrey Cunningham, was acting outside the law by failing to inform them that he was a court employee hand-selected by Judge Amy Reedy rather than empaneled from a randomly-chosen jury pool as state law requires. No one objected when Irion stated in a pre-trial hearing that Cunningham was an employee of the Tenth Judicial District rather than an empaneled juror; however, during the trial, both Carter and Cunningham characterized his role as “a juror.”

Last fall, Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper’s office issued a brief to an appellate court which stated unequivocally that the grand jury foreman “is not impaneled” as the other grand jurors are.

In Monroe County, grand jury foreman Gary Pettway was described in an indictment against Fitzpatrick as “a juror.”

Cunningham was “selected” when Reedy called him “at home” one evening and asked him to serve as her “next grand jury foreman” for McMinn County beginning in 2012.

As the alleged victim of the crimes, Cunningham testified on the witness stand that the statements in Fitzpatrick’s criminal complaints were accurate. Carter insisted that they were not. Cunningham retracted his position as Fitzpatrick’s accuser at the pre-trial hearing, and no police report or sworn statement was produced.

How, then, did the jury reach its conclusions?

Innocent men and women have spent years, and sometimes decades, in state prisons in Tennessee because of corrupt judges.

During Fitzpatrick’s trial, a rally calling upon a raise in the minimum wage was held outside the courthouse. With last week’s jury verdict – that petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances is a felony – such future rallies will no longer be possible under the First Amendment.

The Obama regime targeted Tea Party, Second Amendment, pro-life, Christian, traditional-marriage groups and even a U.S. senator beginning in 2010 in an effort to quell their freedom of speech guaranteed under the First Amendment. Obama operatives have been actively involved in silencing anyone investigating Obama’s background, life story, birthplace, or the veracity of his statements. At the time of this writing, at least one of the operatives is facing criminal indictment for some of the same “crimes” of which Fitzpatrick was accused.

Beginning approximately three weeks ago, Fox News, Fox News Radio, and The Washington Times began to openly discuss the issue about Obama’s eligibility, birthplace, and life narrative, ending a six-year media blackout on the subject. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who launched an investigation at an undisclosed time after his Cold Case Posse declared that Obama’s long-form birth certificate and Selective Service registration form were fraudulent, has told The Times that he is “honing in” on the creators of the forgeries.

Now, almost daily, new revelations of corruption, intimidation, possible blackmail and illegal leaking of confidential information on the part of the regime are made by internet and broadcast media.

On March 17, 2009, Fitzpatrick filed a criminal complaint of treason against Obama for being a “foreign born domestic enemy.” After filing it on the federal level, Fitzpatrick attempted to take it to the Monroe County grand jury, where he resided at the time. It was then that he discovered that Tennessee grand jury foremen serve for years, and sometimes decades, at the pleasure of criminal court judges.

Five years ago, Fitzpatrick was a lone voice naming Obama in the commission of treason. Today he is not.

Adm. James A. Lyons (Ret.), formerly Commander, Pacific Fleet while CDR Fitzpatrick served in the Pacific Fleet, has described Obama’s actions as “the agenda an enemy would devise.” On June 23, Lyons wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Times:

…What’s happening to America’s standing in the world is not due to incompetence, as some have claimed. This is planned. We are witnessing the Obama administration’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood creed, which is to destroy America from within. Congress must be responsible to take back America. Nothing less is acceptable.

Numerous othershave joined the chorus accusing Obama oftreason against the United States of America.

Radio show host Carl Gallups, who is privy to some of the investigative findings of Arpaio and the Cold Case Posse, said on his “Freedom Friday” show last night that Obama comes from a “deep Sunni [Muslim] background.” During the 2008 campaign, Obama claimed he was a committed Christian, but his actions have belied his words as he continues to arm Islamic radicals throughout the Middle East.

Gallups also asserted that “we know” that blackmail was used by the regime as an attempt at intimidation, although he did not elucidate further.

In January 2010, Fitzpatrick wrote of the corruption in the Tennessee courts:

Judges and prosecutors trashed our grand juries in favor manufacturing a dark, secret machine few know about or know how to operate. The state designed and manufactured the machine to take direct action against people the state criminally accuses.

The machine and its operation are necessarily cloaked and hidden in order to keep the machine running smoothing without outside interference. Secrecy further gives cover to government criminals self-absorbed in protecting themselves and government criminal cohorts operating similar machines throughout Tennessee State and throughout America.

In The Post & Email’s first report on Tennessee judicial corruption entitled “The Face of Treason,” Fitzpatrick described the criminality of a long-serving grand jury foreman as “breathtaking and beyond people’s ability to believe.”

At the Bundy Ranch in April, BLM agents retreated after a large group of people arrived to defend the Bundys’ property and right to graze their cattle on the land in dispute. Of the entrenched judicial corruption in Tennessee, Fitzpatrick has said, “It’s going to take large numbers of people standing up.”

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” — John Adams

I'm back. And I'm one really ticked off sailor! Bared teeth and talons! On the war path! Taking no prisoners! Make no mistake! I'll find a way or make one!! Join the fight or get the hell outta my way!! And beware the fury of the patient man!

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Distinguished military graduate – USNA Class of 1975

The Lone Sailor

Troubled as the restless sea...

Psalm 107:23-25
English Standard Version (ESV)
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.